Increasingly, people are carrying devices that have the ability to pinpoint their location. While people generally have the ability to opt-out of location tracking in the interest of preserving their privacy, many people choose to use location tracking features of their phones and other devices because of the variety of services that can be provided using location information. For example, knowing a device's location can assist in getting driving or walking directions, performing a localized search, or various other tasks.
Because of the availability of location information, various services have developed to leverage the information in both social and business contexts. For example, Foursquare is a location-based social networking site that rewards people for visiting certain places in the real world. A business may seek to become a Foursquare venue, because doing so tends to encourage real-world traffic at the business. However, Foursquare tends to encourage traveling to venues in specific types of towns, such as cities, dense suburbs, or up-and-coming small towns.